Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I hate to harsh people's mellows, I really do, but I also hate trying to find out the cons for a product when it gets almost unanimous praise (I'm sure there is some psychological/societal issue going on with that, but that's a different story), so hopefully I can help others with this. A few years ago, I went on a toaster research crusade, due to having bought several toaster ovens in as many years, and finally realizing that most of them were just designed to fail within short life spans (IMO). Even my highly rated and expensive Delonghi, died well before what I expected its life span to be (one year). Finally, I bought the "Cadillac" of toasters, (and I gave it a great review here), the Breville, stainless steel monster (Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ) which costs what seems to be a ridiculous price for a toaster (hint you can get them on BIG sales, (or consider using one of those ubiquitous big % off coupons for a certain bed and bath chain *COUGH*), but has more than 1,000 reviews on here, with 4.5 stars. You get what you pay for with toasters? Maybe. Interestingly, I had looked at this Panny infra-red model before, since my family of 5 are toastaholics, and the idea of "fast toast" really appealed to me for those rushed school mornings. So I was lucky enough to get one for review from Vine, but unfortunately, after a few weeks of regular use, we have gone back to the Breville. As cool as the infra-red tech sounds, and is, this does not make up for the lack of more practical features and design that I believe it lacks. PROS: 1. Very small footprint, and good aesthetics. If you lack a lot of counter space, this will make you happy, as it's tiny. Looks good on counter as well (nice clean, modern look) 2. Claims of 40% faster toasting seems to be accurate, at least compared to my Breville. It IS truly, VERY fast at both cooking and toasting. 3. I love the fact that the heat is accompanied by almost blinding light, so you can REALLY see your food. Welding goggles sold separately. 4. Price seems about right, if a little high (now I see it has jumped - so not as valid when I got the unit) 5. The cool factor (I'm always up for high tech gadgetry) of infrared light for heating. CONS: 1. Same as the pro (small size), but this was such a big con for me (family of 5), that it made the unit almost worthless. YMMV. It's so small that I couldn't even fit smallish frozen pizzas in there. And you can forget about some of the what I would consider normal sized frozen pizza brands (diGiorno, Tombstone, California Pizza Kitchen). Not gonna fit. I was also used to cooking even large frozen dishes like lasagnas or pasta dishes in the Breville, and you can forget about that with this one. Again, this can be a pro or con for you, depending on your usage. But if you like to use your toaster as an oven like we do, I would look elsewhere. 2. Uneven cooking. This one surprised me. There is a definite heat bias towards the back of the unit (and I think they mention this in the manual even),so that in some cases, you will need to rotate things for even cooking. Big pain, for me, and that right there is a deal breaker. (you don't HAVE to rotate things, of course, but you will have quite varying degrees of doneness from food in the front vs food in back) 3. Learning curve. Didn't expect this either, but it also ties into the whole "this thing is cool, but kind of a pain!" mentality I have regarding the toaster. You can forget about looking at the back of the box of frozen food for indications on what temp and time settings to use. Due to the faster cooking, and I think the way it cooks, it's almost like there are no directions for you to go by, except your own trial and error. I have burned many a frozen thing, (while inside was still cold), and I have had cases where I had to "reheat" something multiple times because what I thought was done, needed more cooking. You will probably get used to the non-standard calibration over time, but do you really want to have to come up with custom settings, and maybe more importantly LEARN the appropriate setting for every new thing you cook? Blegh. 4. My biggest hope for this was spectacular toast. If it could have done that, I might have considered keeping it just for that reason, and going back to using the regular oven for larger items. Nooooo! Due to the lack of an adjustable height rack (!?!), Every time I toasted something, the bottom (which you can't see, obviously), gets many times darker than the top, and it should be the opposite, IMO, if only for the fact that you can visually inspect to see if your toast is burning or not. This killed me, and is unfortunate, especially if you are a pre-butterer like I am (something the manual states you SHOULD NOT do since it might catch fire!) Rebel, and noted cynic that I am, I DID pre-butter, and had no problems (and IMO you want the buttered side to be the more toasted, not the opposite, and I did not want to toast buttered side down, so you see my dilemma!) :D I could go on, and I fully realize that a lot of people have and do disagree with the above points (look at the reviews!), but that's the way I see it - this is a flawed toaster oven, that does neither toasting, nor ovening well compared to the better conventional tech toaster ovens out there. I REALLY wanted to like it, and was like a kid at Christmas when I opened it and tried it out, but it just fails in too many categories for us to continue to use it. I can see it being good for single people, or couples that don't eat frozen pizzas, or toast, and people with very little counter space, but again, not my profile, so for me, it was an unfortunate bust. Please note that current prices of the Panny vs. the Breville are not comparable, as the MSRP of the Breville is about double I think, BUT you can get it for MUCH cheaper than that. MUCH (not as cheaply as this unit at it's highest, but close enough to not make a huge difference) To end on a positive note, if they made a larger model with adjustable height racks, I would be all over it, since that would solve my biggest two complaints.